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September 25, 2017

That may be an oversimplification, but a useful one when creating characters for your screenplay or novel--as well as for a bit of navel-gazing. Here's how he defines the four stages:

"At stage one, you are motivated by fear. Everything you do is to avoid punishment or negative outcomes.

At stage two, you are motivated by reward. Everything you do is to get what you want.

At stage three, you are motivated by duty. You’re going to do what you believe you should whether you receive a reward or not.

At stage four, you are motivated by love. You have moved beyond worry for your own needs."

THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF EACH STAGE

Naturally, each of these stages has advantages and drawbacks.

Stage one sounds terrible, but there is a kind of protection implied--the fearful person may never take any risks and therefore may not excel, but they will avoid some of the negative events that befall risk-takers.

People at stage two tend to believe that everybody else is at this stage, and they don't see any problem with being selfish. In fact, often they believe that what they do also benefits the greater good (see Ayn Rand, or "What's good for General Motors is good for America.")

Stage three removes the need to make many decisions or question your actions. The path forward is defined for you by your group or your religion.

While stage four sounds great, it has just as many potential conflicts and complications as the others. For instance, imagine a scientist whose research could potentially save the lives of many people--but requires a dedication of time and effort that makes it difficult for him or her to also devote enough time to family. That's the story of many top artists and scientists.

Of course, nobody is motivated by only one of these all the time. Probably over the course of the day, we make decisions based on all four. Even the same action may be motivated by a mix. However, one may predominate.

HOW TO APPLY THIS TO YOUR CHARACTERS

You could use these as a pattern for the character arc of your protagonist. The character could go from stage three to stage four, or even from stage one to stage four, although a change that big that would require intense events to drive it.

You could also decide at which stage the other characters are. That will help you decide what they would do at any point in your story.

Finally, having different characters at different levels will tend to generate conflict, always useful when you're building a plot.

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Want tips on creating outstanding characters? You'll get them from the top writers of today and times past, in Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nichalas Brealey/Hachette, and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

September 19, 2017

When you're under pressure, thinking of yourself in the 3rd person can help you cope according to a recent study published in Scientific Reports.

Instead of thinking, "How can I possibly get this done!?", think, "How can [your name] possibly get this done?" The "I" mode tends to push you in the direction of your emotions, which in this case probably are negative; creating a bit of distance by changing the reference to your name tends to push you in the direction of possible solutions.

If that's still too close, try imagining that a friend of yours has exactly the same issue with the same circumstances. What would you advise him or her to do?

You may find that if you imagine the problem as belonging to a friend you are much less judgmental than when you think of it as being yours. If so, it's time to be as kind to yourself as you are to your friends.

Need some constructive guidance in writing your book or script? Check out my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey/Hachette, and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

June 04, 2017

According to a report on the Psyblog.com site, the five most attractive personality traits are:

kindness and understanding

intelligence

a sense of humor

being fun-loving

having an exciting personality

If you want to make your protagonist appealing, let them display a couple of these within the first few pages of your novel or screenplay.

I'd say the trickiest is "exciting personality," which is open to interpretation. For sure, don't have your character declare that he or she thinks they're zany, that's usually a sign that the person is particularly boring.

If you have a character whom you want readers/viewers not to like, let him or her display the opposite of one or more of these five.

Of course, while you're at it, you could also check whether you've been displaying these five in your personal life...

April 02, 2017

If you find that you're having trouble shaking the concerns that you dealt with during your job time (or family time), listening to a music track can help you make the shift.

Experiment with what works best for you. For some people an upbeat tune is most effective, others prefer a meditative track that helps them to calm down and re-focus.

To energize you when you feel too tired to write.

A recent study looking at the use of music to empower athletes tested 31 clips and found the two that were most effective were "We Will Rock You" (Queen) and "Get Ready for This" (2 Unlimited), but you probably already have tracks that you know pump up your energy levels.

To evoke the mood that you want to create in what you are writing.

If you're writing a horror script or novel, it could help you to listen to a soundtrack from an existing horror film, for instance. (Some people find it too distracting to have music playing while writing, this is something you'll have to try and see whether it works for you.)

To tune in to the energy of your major characters.

What song or music track would best represent your protagonist's energy or world view? How about your antagonist? Listening to these before you write a major scene can be useful.

Any more?

If you have any other ways you use music to enhance your writing or creativity, feel free to share them in the comments section!

February 20, 2017

The Daily Mail and other publications have reported on a study of depression and saying 'thank you'. The Mail article starts:

"It is only two small words. But saying 'thank you' to others could be the key to beating depression."

Well...let's take a closer look.

THE STUDY

The US study asked 352 people about their personalities in order to find out the degree to which they feel depressed or grateful, and how they deal with stress and other people.

They found that people who express gratitude are better at reframing negative situations and get depressed less often, and people who are frequently depressed find it more difficult to open up to others and express gratitude less frequently.

Not that earth-shaking, is it?

If you have a positive outlook on life, you find more things to be grateful for and sometimes you express thanks when others do something nice.

When you're depressed, the things you see as negative loom larger, there seem to be fewer things to be grateful for, and often you feel less like interacting with people.

THE CONCLUSION

And from this, the study concludes that "Expressing gratitude for small acts of kindness could be impactful to [the depressed person's] physical and mental health."

The problem is that the study didn't then get the depressed group to express gratitude more often and measure whether that made a difference to the extent or frequency of their depression.

CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSE AND EFFECT

The study established correlation, not cause and effect. That is, expressing gratitude and levels of depression are connected, but the study didn't show that changing the former will affect the latter.

This kind of unproven conclusion is very common, and publications, blogs, and websites love anything that smacks of an instant answer. The "Three tips for changing your life in the next five minutes without any effort on your part" kinds of posts get a lot of clicks.

GRATITUDE

Regardless of the weakness of the study, finding things to be grateful for and expressing that gratitude to other people or in a journal does seem like a good idea...just not a panacea.

February 05, 2017

A couple of recent studies suggest that improving your posture can help you overcome moderate depression.

Dr. Elizabeth Broadbent reports that sitting upright rather than slumping helps you be more confident in your thoughts, more persistent with difficult tasks, and to feel more proud of your accomplishments.

Another study suggests that walking upright rather than hunching your shoulders and keeping your gaze low can decrease feelings of depression and low energy.

Deep breathing and certain yoga positions also have been shown to help alleviate depression and anxiety. In one study, women who attended yoga classes twice a week for three months reduced their depression by 50% and increased their feelings of general well-being by 65%.

Obviously, these are no substitute for getting professional help if you are deeply depressed, but they won't hurt and they could help.

December 12, 2016

Apologies to my US readers, for whom the parody cover below won't ring a bell. I shall explain: Here in England there's a railway operated by a company called Southern. The people who run the company and the people who work for it don't get along well, which means there are lots of strikes. Which means lots of trains don't run when they're supposed to (or sometimes at all).

During commute times they pack people in like sardines, while charging very high rates...partly because eventually they give in to the strikers and that means paying more or hiring more people or both.

There's just enough of the "stiff upper lip" tendency left over in the UK for companies and unions to get away with situations like this. "Mustn't grumble," they say, grumbling. Perhaps one day a hero will arise to lead the downtrodden commuting masses. Me, I work at home.

In the video, he suggests that the people in the audience turn on their phones and spend two minutes writing a text to someone they love, because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

I've had two friends who died instantly of heart attacks (neither had a history of heart disease), a good friend's son who drowned, and a nephew whose life was transformed in an instant when he was hit by a drunk driver, so I know what he means. Oh yeah, my house also burned down once.

If you've lived for a while, you probably have your own examples.

Might be a good time to fire up your phone, too.

ps: Himmelman talks about the inner critic (his is called Marv) who sends you messages of fear. I have an audio track that can help you tame your inner critic. If you want me to send to you as an mp3, email me at jurgenwolff@gmail.com--a little present, no charge.

June 07, 2016

Normally brainstorming is all about generating ideas as fast as you can, not judging them as they come up (write them all down), and later assessing which ones are worth pursuing.

A different approach is catching on, according to an article at Fastdesign.com: generating questions.

Let's say you want to come up with ideas for how to overcome your habit of procrastinating.

In the usual brainstorming approach you'd come up with a lot of possible solutions:

setting up rewards for when I do my work on time

setting up punishments for when I procrastinate

getting an app that keeps me off social media for specific period of time

chunking down my tasks into smaller pieces

GENERATING QUESTIONS

In the questioning approach, you'd come up with lots of related questions:

what do I get from procrastinating?

when did I start procrastinating?

when don't I procrastinate?

what's different about those times from the times I do?

who is a good role model for not procrastinating?

what motivates people who don't procrastinate?

what kinds of tasks do I procrastinate on?

As with ideas, don't judge the questions, write them all down.

HARVEST THE MOST USEFUL QUESTIONS

The let some time go by, at least a couple of hours, and move to a different location than the one where you generated the questions (even if it's just across the room).

Go through and mark the questions that you feel are most useful--that is, the ones that would help you most if you could answer them.

At this stage, don't worry if you don't know the answers. Go with your gut as much as with your brain.

ANSWER THE MOST USEFUL QUESTIONS

With your list of the potentially most useful questions, write down the answers that come to mind. These may lead to additional questions (and answers).

If you don't know, consider who might help you. For example, if you're not sure what you procrastinate about the most, I'm guessing your spouse, partner, or work colleague will be only too glad to help.

If all else fails, guess. Your intuition often is your best guide.

APPLY THE ANSWERS

It's likely that the answers to the questions will lead to some specific ideas for dealing with the challenge.

Try them out, one by one. If one doesn't work, before you give up on it try another question session with queries like these:

Why isn't this working?

What could make it more powerful?

Is any part of it working?

What does the failure of this method reveal to me about myself?

Even if you find brainstorming the usual way to be productive (as I do), it's worth trying this alternative.

April 20, 2016

The nature of depression

It’s Depression Week, not a week for everybody to get depressed but rather to make people more aware of the illness. I have personal experience with it, so I thought I’d share my thoughts.

It’s not an illness that manifests the same way for each person, nor even for the same person at different times. And it’s not identical to feeling a bit sad.

At a low level, it saps your strength and confidence so you’re operating at maybe 70% of your capacity. It can sneak up on you and it can take a long time before you realize what’s happening.

At a medium level, you’re operating at 50% or so. Things pile up, you slow down or stop making contacts with friends, box sets of TV series have a sudden appeal.

At a high level, it can be a kind of paralysis, making getting out of bed or doing the simplest things seem like a huge undertaking.

It’s usually only if you’re at the high level that other people notice.

Medication can be helpful, but there is still a lot of controversy about the drugs’ effectiveness and side effects. In my experience, they can take a bit of the edge off but they’re far from a cure. Counselling, especially cognitive behaviour therapy, can be useful. Exercise has been shown to help, although it can be hard of motivate yourself to do it when you’re in the midst of depression.

What NOT to say

There are some things NOT to say to a depressed person, no matter how well-intentioned these comments may be:

1: ”You really have nothing to be depressed about.”

Depression doesn’t have to be about any specific incident or situation, so this is like saying, “You have nothing to have measles about.”

2: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Possibly, but there may be several shades of darker coming from where that person is at the time.

3: “Lots of people are in worse situations than you.”

Let me just poke you in the eye and remind you that some people have been poked in BOTH eyes, and we’ll see how much better that makes you feel.

4: “You should get out more, have more fun!”

That’s a bit like telling a person with a broken leg, “You should run more.”

5: “This, too, shall pass.”

Yep, and then the better times, too, shall pass. However, one of the few advantages of having survived a number of episodes of depression is the awareness that it will pass—the first time it hits you, you assume you’re going to feel like that forever, which is what leads to many suicides.

Actually, there’s nothing wrong with suggesting treatments because some of these things do seem to help some people. The problem is that sometimes this is said in a tone that suggests you’re dealing with an easily solved little condition.

What TO say:

I think the only thing that is helpful to say is that you care about the person and you’re there for them if they would like to talk or take refuge if things get too difficult for them to handle.

The problem is that in the darkest phases of depression it’s not that you think there’s nobody willing to help, it’s that you believe nobody can help. Even so, knowing there are people in your life who stand by you even when you’re not functioning fully can be comforting.

If a depressed person chooses to talk about their feelings, understanding and empathy is helpful. Trying to rebut their feelings with logic isn’t. And sometimes a hug is better than a lot of words.

If you are suffering

If you are suffering from depression, do reach out to your doctor and consider getting counselling even if you feel there’s no point. That’s one of the symptoms of deep depression, and leaving it untreated is no different from trying to ignore a broken arm. At worst, you have nothing to lose; at best, you'll find that people care and there are methods that help you get back to feeling better and participating fully in life.